Thoughts after 2100 XP (~ 35 hours of work)
What have I learned? What intrigued me about this process?
I took the diagnostics, still the exercises felt too easy and not challenging enough.
Now, I completed 78% of math foundations II. Maybe it’s time to switch to MF3.
I felt like something was missing.
[ ] remix lessons and make them your own
Practice possibilities
In my experience, the only way to successfully teach a more sophisticated technique is to present a problem where known simpler techniques fail.
If you want your students to understand why a more sophisticated definition is preferable, then you have to introduce them to a situation where the simpler definition breaks down and the sophisticated definition saves the day. ~ Justin Skycak
how to learn new concepts
Cast some complicated problem into your chosen programming language/abstract framework and model it yourself, try to reinvent it there.
From Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs:
You develop a language (sometimes consisting just of one or two functions) such that the solution of the problem can be trivially expressed in it.
Many problems in computer science become significantly more tractable if you have a tool for expressing your own way of thought, not the way of thought of the machine. You write programs for yourself in the first place. It’s similar to mathematics: when proving a theorem, you prove it (using the language of formal algebra/calculus/etc.) to yourself, trying to figure out the best way to do it, using as little efforts as possible and being elegant.
keywords: language agnostic, domain specific languages
Examples
TODO
how to move past the advanced beginner stage
The advanced beginner stage is the transition point between the beginner and intermediate stage.
mini-projects
- read Divine Proportions and implement some concepts in Julia
Euler’s formula
Update 10.06.2025
I completed 95% of MF2 and 28% of MF3.